This archive report was first published on 25 November 2019.
On November 25, 2019, we looked back at the key events that have defined Namibia's journey to independence. The country's path to freedom began on March 21, 1990, when it gained independence after nearly a century under German and South African rule.
Sam Nujoma, the leader of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO), became the country's first president. SWAPO has remained in power ever since.
The introduction of the Namibian dollar on September 15, 1993 marked a significant milestone in the country's economic development.
On March 1, 1994, South Africa handed over the key fishing port of Walvis Bay, an enclave within the country that it had controlled for 84 years.
However, the country faced a separatist uprising in the far-northern Caprivi Strip in August 1999. The militants sought the secession of the region, but the uprising was quickly put down, and 30 people were later found guilty of high treason.
The Caprivi Strip was rebaptised the Zambezi Region to erase the colonial connotation.
On August 14, 2004, Namibia commemorated the anniversary of the killing of tens of thousands of indigenous Herero and Nama people by German colonial forces a century earlier.
Germany offered its first public apology, but Namibians still await a formal government apology. Germany also ruled out compensation for descendants of those killed.
Years later, in 2015, a German government official unequivocally labelled the slaughter a systematic 'genocide'. In 2018, Germany handed over remains of a number of those killed.
President Hage Gottfried Geingob announced plans to expropriate land owned by foreign absentee landlords as part of land reform measures in October 2018. Whites own most of Namibia's commercial farmland.
